CARDINAL   GIBBONS  FORTY  YEARS   AGO 


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THtSfreMMAYNOTBECOPj 
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"Hi  THE  AUGUST  NUMBER  M 


Cardinal  Gibbons  Forty  Years  Ago 

With  New  Portrait 


The  Kalsomining  of  Dakota  Sam 

Skyland  in  the  Andes 

All  Cats  Look  Black  at  Night 

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while  to  you — just  about  the  most  indispensable 
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It  isn't  the  circuit  of  wire  that  connects  your  in- 
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It's  the  Twenty  Million  Voices  at  the  other  end  of 
the  wire  on  every  Bell  Telephone ! 

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properly  drilled  and  accommodating  to  the  last 
degree,  and  the  apparatus  up  to  the  highest  pitch 
of  efficiency. 

Quite  a  job,  all  told. 

Every  telephone  user  is  an  important  link  in  the 
system — just  as  important  as  the  operator.  With 
a  little  well  meant  suggestion  on  our  part,  we 
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Next,  don't  grow  fretful   because  you  think p 
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PUTNAM'S    MONTHLY 

THE   READER 


AUGUST,  1908 


imes,  Cardinal  Gibbons  

From  a  drawing  by  W.  D.  Paddock 

ardina!  Gibbons  Forty  Years  Ago.      (Illustrated) 

I    Foreign  Tour  at  Home :   VI     ( Illustrated ) 

he  Heart  of  a  Geisha.     Part  II     (A  Story) 

he  Kalsomining  of  Dakota  Sam.     (A  Story) 
Illustrated  by  Arthur  G.  Dove 

he  Sonnet.     ( A  Poem )       .         .         . 

kyland   in  the  Andes.     (Illustrated) 

ess  than  Kin.     (  Chapters  I-II ) 
Illustrated  by  M.  J.  Spero 

ugustus  St.=Gaudens. 

ose  Song.     ( A  Poem )        .         .        . 

herwell's  Holiday.     (A  Story) 
Illustrated  by  Robert  Edwards 

.11  Cats  Look  Black  at  Night.     (A  Story- 
Illustrated  by  William  J.  Glackens 

udith  of  the  Cumberlands.      (  Chapters  VII-IX )  . 
Illustrated  by  George  Wright 

he  Great  Lakes  :  V— The  Romance  and  Tragedy 
of  the  Inland  Seas 

,n  Error  of  Judgment.     ( A  Story  )  . 

,  Half = Dozen  Problem  Novels  .... 

iction  in  Lighter  Vein 

lie  Notes  by  an  Idle  Reader 

he  Lounger  

loteworthy  Books  of  the  Month    .... 


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5I4  JAMES,    CARDINAL   GIBBONS 


\ 


' 


PUTNAM'S  MONTHLY 

&  THE  READER 


VOL.   IV 


AUGUST,   1908 


NO.   5 


CARDINAL  GIBBONS  FORTY 
YEARS  AGO 

The  Work  of  a  Zealous  Young  Bishop 

in  North  Carolina 

By  DAY  ALLEN    WILLEY 

Illustrated  from  Photographs  by  the  Writer 


fisUiS 

SSI 

w« 

s 

v  V'W 

HNS 

TANDING  on  the 
shore  of  the  Po- 
tomac is  a  stately 
mansion  that  half 
a  century  ago  was 
preserved  by  the 
American  people 
as  a  memorial  to 
the  one  they  call  the  Father  of  his 
Country.  The  Cape  Fear  River  flows 
to  the  sea,  through  North  Carolina, 
past  another  building  that  might  also 
be  preserved  as  a  memorial  to  a  no- 
ted American,  for  it  is  indeed  a  re- 
minder of  the  merits  of  a  man  who 
has  been  honored  as  the  Cardinal 
Archbishop  of  the  United  States. 

In  the  city  of  Wilmington — that 
quaint  "Salem  of  the  South,"  peopled 
far  before  Revolutionary  times — 
were  spent  years  that  were  destined 
to    be    momentous   in   the   career    of 

Copyright,  igo8,  by  Putnam's 


James,  Cardinal  Gibbons.  The  period 
when  he  called  it  home  formed  a 
chapter  in  his  life  -  history  fraught 
with  events  which  fall  within  the 
experience  of  few.  Even  a  short 
time  makes  great  changes  in  our 
country.  He  gave  up  his  home  in 
Wilmington  not  forty  years  ago, 
yet  his  words  and  deeds  while  Bishop 
of  North  Carolina  are  known  to  few 
outside  of  the  little  old  city,  and 
those  who  lived  in  this  part  of  the 
South  during  the  stirring  times  im- 
mediately after  the  Civil  War  are 
mostly  remembered  by  their  head- 
stones. About  these  years  of  his 
life  his  lips  have  thus  far  been  sealed. 
Why?  Because  the  innate  modesty 
of  the  man  prevents  him  from  telling 
a  tale  he  might  tell  that  would  per- 
haps show  the  manliness,  courage 
and    patriotism    of    this    prelate    far 

MomhlyCo.     All  rights  reserved 

515 


ST.    THOMAS  S    CHURCH,    WILMINGTON,    N.    C. 

Front  and  side  views  of  the  church  where  Bishop  Gibbons  officiated 


than 


any 


acts   of   his 


more    clearly 
public  career. 

Only  by  going  to  Carolina,  seeing 
the  evidence  of  his  labor,  hearing 
from  the  lips  of  those  who  know*  of 
his  devotion  and  endurance  can  the 
curtain  be  partially  rolled  awray  from 
this  part  of  the  panorama  of  the 
Cardinal's  life;  and  thus  it  is  revealed 
to  the  readers  of  this  magazine.  We 
have  to  go  back  a  little  wray  to  the 
days  just  after  the  war.  Carolina  had 
its  share  of  the  poverty  and  suffering. 
Throughout  the  State,  which  stretches 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Western 
mountains,  rive  hundred  miles  away, 
were  only  a  million  people — Meth- 
odists, Baptists,  Episcopalians,  Pres- 
byterians, and  members  of  sundry 
other  Protestant  denominations ;  but 
the  Catholic  Church  was  represented 
by  a  mere  handful  of  humanity — so 
few  that  a  Catholic  was  looked  upon 
as  a  curiosity ;  more  than  this — as  one 
uncanny,  to  be  suspected,  shunned. 
The  rites  of  the  Church  wrere  regarded 
as  a  sort  of  sorcery.  In  Wilmington, 
where  the  only  church  of  this  belief 

516 


existed  between  Charleston  and  far 
away  Petersburg  in  Virginia,  the  feel- 
ing towards  those  who  worshipped  in 
it  was  anything  but  kindly.  Little 
girls  whose  parents  attended  it  had 
their  aprons  torn  off  in  the  street  and 
suffered  other  abuses.  Catholic  chil- 
dren were  forced  to  leave  the  one 
school  in  the  place,  because  the  Pro- 
testant fathers  and  mothers  threat- 
ened to  close  its  doors  if  they  were  not 
excluded.  Perhaps  it  was  well  that 
old  St.  Thomas's,  where  were  intoned 
the  mass  and  vespers,  was  built  of 
brick,  with  stout  plank  doors;  other- 
wise it  might  not  nowr  be  standing  as  a 
silent  memorial  of  those  once  gathered 
within  it. 

As  the  curtain  of  history  is  rolled 
back,  the  man  whose  tragic  death  in 
part  led  to  the  coming  of  Bishop 
Gibbons  to  Carolina  should  not  be 
forgotten.  The  name  of  Father  Mur- 
phy is  never  mentioned  here  without 
remembrance  of  the  dreaded  plague 
which  for  months  held  the  town  in 
its  grasp.  Among  the  few  who  did 
not   flee   but  remained  to  nurse  the 


CARDINAL  GIBBONS  FORTY   YEARS  AGO 


5i7 


sick  and  to  administer  the  last  rites 
to  the  dying  of  all  beliefs,  was  the 
brave  Irish  priest  who  at  last  was 
stricken  down  among  the  victims  of 
yellow  fever.  With  the  death  of 
Father  Murphy  the  Catholics  of  Wil- 
mington were  left  without  a  counsel- 
lor to  guide  them.  The  church  was 
indeed  demoralized,  and  on  Arch- 
bishop Spalding  devolved  the  task  of 
restoring  order  out  of  chaos.  The 
situation  needed  a  man  not  merely  of 
energy  but  of  executive  ability  and 
tact.  He  must  be  versatile  to  meet 
the  emergencies.  There  were  many 
willing  priests,  but  the  question  was 
one  of  fitness.  Finally  the  Arch- 
bishop decided  upon  a  young  man 
who  had  been  his  secretary  and  his 
chancellor,  one  with  whom  he  had 
been  so  closely  associated  that  he 
knew  every  trait  of  his  character. 
But  more  than  priestly  power  was 
needed,  and  by  the  authority  of  the 
Pope,  Father  Gibbons  became  Bishop 
Gibbons.  This  was  a  part  of  his 
mission — to  build  up  the  church  not 
only  in  town  but  in  country,  to  make 
peace  if  possible  between  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  to  restore  to  those  of 


his  belief  their  rights  as  citizens,  of 
which  they  had  been  in  part  de- 
prived. Outside  of  Wilmington  the 
entire  State  of  North  Carolina  con- 
tained but  an  occasional  group  of 
these  believers;  for,  as  I  have  said, 
there  was  not  an  organized  church 
between  the  city  and  Petersburg, 
two  hundred  miles  away.  Such  was 
the  diocese  of  which  Bishop  Gibbons 
was  placed  in  charge — a  diocese 
of  the  wild,  where  he  might  make 
a  journey  of  fifty  miles  before  reach- 
ing a  single  family  of  his  church,  a 
country  so  sparsely  settled  that  to 
travel  in  it  often  meant  following  a 
mere  trail  impossible  for  any  vehicle, 
and  sleeping  at  night  perhaps  without 
even  a  tent  to  shelter  one  from  the 
elements.  The  average  number  of 
human  beings  of  any  belief  to  the 
square  mile  of  territory  was  only 
twenty,  and  the  railway  connected 
only  a  half-dozen  towns. 

Such  was  the  field  to  which  the 
young  priest  was  assigned  after  he 
had  been  vested  with  the  episcopal 
robes.  Those  who  gathered  in  old 
St.  Thomas's  at  the  first  service  he 
conducted,  saw  a  youth  with  figure 


ST.     1HOMASS    CHURCH,    WILMINGTON,    N.    C 

Showing  the  little  annex  occupied  as  a  residence  by  Bishop  Gibbons  and  Father  Gross 


5iS 


PUTNAM'S  AXD  THE  READER 


spare  to  frailness,  but  there  was  in 
his  face  the  evidence  of  character  and 
determination.  He  knew  he  was  in 
charge  of  a  people  who  for  the  time 


Thomas's,  to  remain  there,  until  1890, 
continuing  the  work  laid  out  by  his 
superior.  Father  Gross  entered  into 
his  labors  with  such  heartiness  that 


CONVENT   OF   MERCY,    WILMINGTON,    N,    C 
An  institution  established  by  Bishop  Gibbons  over  fort)'  years  ago 


were  outside  of  the  town  society  as 
much  as  if  they  were  outcasts.  Most 
of  them  were  in  poverty.  Some  had 
lost  their  all  in  the  war.  None  could 
be  called  wealthy.  To  them  the 
future  was  one  of  hopelessness,  for 
such  was  the  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the 
church  that  the  question  had  arisen 
if  it  should  not  be  disbanded  and  the 
cities  of  North  Carolina  left  without 
a  congregation  of  the  Catholic  faith. 

Then  began  the  greatest  struggle 
yet  to  be  recorded  in  the  life  of  James 
Gibbons — a  fight  to  save  his  church. 
First,  he  must  have  a  priest  to  assist 
him  and  to  serve  the  people  when  he 
was  journeying  over  field  and  through 
valley  to  reach  the  few  scattered 
folk  in  the  country.  Fortunate  was 
it  that  a  man  after  his  own  heart 
became  associated  with  him — a  man 
willing  to  make  sacrifices  and  endure 
hardship  and  discomfort  in  his  zeal 
for  his  life-work.  Mark  Gross  was  also 
young  in  years  when  with  his  friend 
and  Bishop  he  entered  upon  his 
duties   in    Carolina   as   rector   of    St. 


he  soon  won  the  esteem  of  the  peo- 
ple, holding  a  place  in  their  affection 
second  only  to  that  of  the  Bishop.  The 
two  lived  together  like  brothers. 
Their  home  is  still  standing — a  little 
brick  "lean-to,"  scarce  two  stories 
high,  built  in  part  from  their  scanty 
income.  They  could  not  afford  a 
better  place.  The  money  must  go  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  church,  as  the 
Bishop  expressed  it.  And  this  hovel 
was  erected  behind  the  church  itself. 
The  rear  wall  of  the  church  formed 
the  back  of  the  house,  the  building 
being  lighted  on  only  three  sides. 

Here  these  men  lived,  year  after 
year,  bishop  and  priest  eating  on  a 
table  of  rough  boards,  and  sometimes 
preparing  their  own  food,  if  they  had 
no  funds  to  get  assistance.  They 
slept  on  cots  that  stood  on  floors  bare 
of  rug  or  carpet.  The  home  of  many 
a  laborer  in  the  town  was  much  more 
pretentious  and  comfortable.  But  the 
shelter  cost  so  little  to  build  and 
maintain  that  its  builders  could 
devote  a  part  of  their  allowance  from 


CARDINAL  GIBBONS  FORTY  YEARS  AGO 


5i9 


the  church  authorities  to  aiding  the 
poorer  members  of  their  flock.  How 
many  families  were  thus  relieved 
from  time  to  time  by  their  charity,  is 
known  only  to  themselves.  Of  Father 
Gross  the  story  is  told  that  if  he  had 
more  than  one  hat,  or  an  extra  pair 
of  trousers,  he  was  sure  to  give  them 
to  some  needy  parishioner.  On  one 
occasion  he  came  into  the  store  of  a 
friend  with  a  laced  shoe  on  one  foot 
and  a  buttoned  gaiter  on  the  other. 
Asked  why  they  were  not  alike,  he 
replied  that  he  had  intended  to  give  a 
pair  to  a  poor  man,  but  had  made  a 
mistake  and  given  one  of  each  kind. 
His  habit  of  giving  away  everything 
he  could  spare  became  so  well 
known  that  several  ladies  of  the 
church  made  it  their  business  to  call 
at  the  Bishop's  house  frequently  to 
see  if  the  occupants  had  enough  food 
and  clothing.  More  than  once  they 
found  it  destitute  of  actual  necessa- 
ries,  and   supplied  them. 

The  great  benefit  of  education 
impressed  itself  on  Gibbons,  the 
young  Bishop,  as  it  has  continued  to 
impress  him  in  later  life.  He  realized 
that  the  children  of  all  classes  must 
be  instructed  for  the  good  of  the  state, 


and  if  the  church  was  to  be  preserved. 
At  that  time  there  was  no  free  school 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  many  fami- 
lies were  too  poor  to  give  their  little 
ones  even  the  rudiments  of  mental 
training.  He  knew  the  value  of 
woman  in  this  necessary  work  and 
secured  three  members  of  the  order 
of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  to  establish  a 
convent  in  Wilmington.  They  must 
have  a  home,  and  the  community  was 
surprised  to  learn  that  in  some  mys- 
terious way  the  Bishop  had  obtained 
enough  money  to  buy  one  of  the  not- 
able Southern  houses,  still  known  as 
the  Peden  Mansion.  It  cost  $20,000 — 
a  small  fortune  for  Wilmington, — and 
the  wonder  was  where  the  money  had 
come  from.  Only  a  small  part  could 
have  been  given  by  the  church  folk, 
but  the  Bishop  had  made  several 
trips  into  the  Northern  States.  He 
had  stood  up  in  the  chancel  of  church 
and  cathedral,  and  had  pictured  the 
plight  of  Carolina  so  graphically  as 
to  open  purse-strings  and  pocket- 
books,  and  to  secure  over  $5000  in 
the  city  of  Albany  alone.  Thus  the 
school  was  established;  and  it  was 
only  one  of  his  purchases  for  the 
church.     Other   property  bought  for 


REAR   VIEW   OF   THE   DUDLEY   MANSION,    WILMINGTON,    N.    C. 
When  Iiishop  Gibbons  became  Archbishop  he  was  entertained  in  this  house 


520 


PUTNAM'S  AND  THE  READER 


THE    SCHOOL    WHERE    BISIIOr    GIBBONS    LECTURED 
AND    TAUGHT 

Showing  the  desk  and  chair  which  he  used,  and  a 
painting  which  lie  presented  to  the  school 

the  cause  cost  thousands  more,  al- 
though not  a  dollar  was  asked  from 
the  Wilmington  people.  And  with 
the  gifts  of  his  Northern  friends 
was  placed  a  part  of  the  Bishop's 
personal  income — all  he  could  spare 
from  other  appropriations  for  the 
church. 

Within  a  year  after  the  two  men 
began  their  labors,  the  clouds  had 
broken.  The  broadmindedness  and 
especially  the  Americanism  of  the 
Bishop  gradually  changed  the  feeling 
towards  him  and  his  followers.  From 
being  distrusted  at  first,  he  became 
esteemed.  Through  his  influence 
the  spirit  of  the  town  towards  the 
people  was  transformed  from  hostility 


to  goodwill.  The  example  set 
by  their  head  was  emulated 
by  his  parishioners,  until  finally 
the  gap  between  Catholic  and 
Protestant  was  closed  appar- 
ently forever,  as  no  sect  is 
more  respected  to-day  in  Wil- 
mington than  the  adherents  of 
the  Church  of  Rome. 

Only    a   very   few   remain   of 
the  group   of  the   faithful  who, 
Sunday     after     Sunday,     knelt 
before  the  altar  at  St.    Thomas's 
in  the  sixties.     Clearly   do    they 
recall    the    life    of    the    present 
Cardinal,     and    the    tales    they 
tell    depict    not    only    his    work 
among  them,    but    his    journey- 
ings  here  and  there  in  Carolina, 
when  for  the  time  he  laid  aside 
his  official  duties  to  assume  the 
role  of  a  Christian  messenger  to 
the  country  folk.     As  conditions 
at   St.   Thomas's   improved,    he 
felt    he    could  give    more    time 
to  the  greater  field,  and  leaving 
Father  Gross  in  charge  he  would 
be    absent    for    a    fortnight    or 
more    at    a    time.     Where    pos- 
sible   he    travelled   by   railway, 
but  so  many  households  of  the 
church    were    off   the   few  miles 
of  iron  highway,  that  much    of 
his    journeying    was     done     on 
horseback,   or  muleback,  or   by 
wagon.     "It  was  indeed  a  dilap- 
idated affair,"  says  Mrs.  O'Con- 
nor, one  of  his  early  friends.    "It 
was  of  the  kind  known  as  a  'demo- 
crat,' and  drawn  by  two  horses.     The 
Bishop  sometimes  had  a  young  priest 
with  him  who  drove,  or  a  colored  man 
who   assisted.      The   space    they   did 
not  occupy  was  filled  with  packages 
of  clothing  and  such  things  as   sug- 
ar   and   flour  and    medicines.      Most 
of    it    was    for    the    poorer    families 
with    whom    they    might    stop;     but 
they  also  earned  their  clerical  robes 
for    ceremonies   and    food    for  them- 
selves, for  many  a  time  did  that  old 
wagon  stop  in  the  forest  where  they 
must  eat  their  noon  meal.     We  often 
asked  the  Bishop  to  give  up  the  old 
wagon  and  get  another,  for  it  finally 
became  so  rickety  that  I  thought  it 


CARDINAL  GIBBONS  FORTY  YEARS  AGO 


;2i 


dangerous.  To  break 
down  twenty  miles  from 
any  human  habitation 
is  not  a  trifling  matter. 
But  he  always  replied 
that  he  thought  the 
wagon  might  last  a  while 
longer,  and  when  some 
of  the  church  members 
offered  to  buy  him  an- 
othe  r,  he  answered : 
'Friends,  you  can  give 
me  the  money,  if  you 
will,  for  the  church 
needs  it,  but  not  for  any 
vehicle  for  my  use.'  " 

Long  ago,  probably, 
the  old  "democrat"  was 
turned  into  kindling- 
wood,  or  stored  away 
to  be  forgotten;  but 
it  had  rolled  over  thousands  of  miles 
of  Carolina  on  its  mission  of  mercy. 
It  went  into  places  where  its  owner 
risked  life  and  health  in  succoring 
families  ill  of  contagious  diseases.  It 
entered  settlements  where  every  stran- 
ger was  looked  upon  as  an  enemy  by 
the  clannish  mountaineers.  It  trav- 
elled in  the  "Feud  Belt,"  where  men 
with  loaded  guns  were  accustomed 
to  take  by  stealth  the  lives  of  their 
enemies.  To  venture  into  the  rural 
districts  of  Carolina  was  to  incur 
hardship  and  to  risk  danger  as  well. 
But  the  man  who  later  wrote  "The 
Ambassador  of  Christ"  could  well 
describe  him,  for  in  truth  he  himself 
was  such,  never  hesitating  to  seek  out 
the  people  of  the  church,  no  matter 
what  dangers  and  hardships  might 
have  to  be  overcome. 

Truly  St.  Thomas's  is  a  picturesque 
old  church.  In  the  other  days  it 
stood  on  a  spacious  lot  which  revealed 
the  dignity  of  its  proportions,  but  a 
part  of  this  lot  has  since  been  sold  and 
the  edifice  is  now  squeezed  in  between 
the  house  adjoining  and  an  ugly 
square  wooden  structure  which  serves 
as  a  rectory.  Constructed  of  red 
brick,  it  is  covered  with  a  stucco  or 
plaster  of  a  brown  hue  which  pro- 
duces an  effect  of  brown  stone.  The 
massive  walls,  the  high-hipped  roof 
ornamented    by    the    pinnacles   with 


THE  ALTAR  WHICH    EISHOP    CIIiPON'S    GAVE   TO    THE    CONVENT    OF 
MERCY,  SHOWING    SOME    OF    THE    STATUARY,   ALSO    HIS    GIFT 


which  the  front  wall  is  finished,  make 
the  exterior  of  the  church  dignified 
and  impressive  in  spite  of  the  obvious 
neglect  in  repairing  and  maintaining 
it.  The  interior  walls  have  been 
redecorated  and  the  paintings  repre- 
senting the  Stations  of  the  Cross  are 
of  later  date  than  Bishop  Gibbons's 
time;  but  the  altar  in  front  of  which 
he  so  often  intoned  the  mass  and 
pronounced  the  benediction  is  still 
intact,  as  well  as  the  paintings  in  oil 
which  adorn  the  front  walls  on  either 
side  of  the  altar.  One  of  these, 
representing  the  Madonna,  was  a 
gift  from  him  to  the  church ;  while 
standing  below  it  is  a  statue  of  the 
Virgin — another  evidence  of  his 
generosity. 

As  one  enters  the  little  old  church, 
he  is  duly  impressed  by  its  associa- 
tion with  the  past.  Not  only  the 
American  Catholic,  but  the  American 
of  any  creed  who  knows  the  estima- 
tion in  which  Cardinal  Gibbons  is 
held,  must  feel  reverence  and  admira- 
tion as  he  recalls  the  scenes  that  have 
been  enacted  here.  But  not  until 
one  sees  the  ugly,  dilapidated  annex, 
nearly  hidden  behind  the  church,  can 
he  realize  how  this  man  existed,  what 
he  must  have  endured  in  his  devotion 
to  his  work.  The  lower  floor,  on  a 
level  with  the  ground,  where  it  is  not 
even  lower,  is  not  as  good  as  the  cellar 


522 


PUTNAM'S  AND  THE  READER 


of  some  city  tenements.  The  rooms 
have  low  ceilings  and  have  always 
been  dimly  lighted  because  of  the 
shrubbery  outside.  The  first  floor 
is  divided  into  two  rooms,  which 
when  occupied  by  bishop  and  priest, 
formed  the  kitchen 
and  a  supply  or 
storage  shed.  In 
the  three  rooms 
above  they  slept 
and  ate  their  meals. 
The  annex  is  con- 
nected with  the 
church  by  a  stair- 
way, which  in  the 
old  days  led  to  an 
apartment  in  the 
rear  of  the  church 
used  by  the  Bishop 
as  a  study.  Here 
he  received  visitors 
as  well  as  com- 
posed many  of 
his    sermons. 

The  Convent  of 
Mercy  at  Wilming- 
ton seems  insigni- 
ficant beside  some 
of  the  ornate  struc- 
tures occupied  by 
wealthy  orders  of 
the  Catholic 
church,    but    none 

has  a  more  honorable  history  than 
this  rambling  wooden  building,  whose 
character  is  indicated  only  by  a 
little  cross  upon  its  roof.  As  the 
visitor  is  ushered  into  the  recep- 
tion room,  he  may  chance  to  see 
through  an  open  doorway  in  the  hall 
a  beautiful  little  chapel.  The  good 
Sister  Mary  Frances  may  relate  how 
Sunday  after  Sunday  the  young 
Bishop  ministered  at  the  altar — an- 
other of  his  gifts  to  the  Sisterhood. 
And  a  very  artistic  altar  it  is  in  de- 
sign. The  miniature  chapel  was  made 
out  of  the  drawing-room  of  the  old 
planter  who  built  the  house.  It  is 
only  large  enough  to  seat  about  fifty 
people,  but  many  of  the  most  elo- 
quent discourses  uttered  by  the 
founder  of  this  institution  have  been 


FIGURE   OF   A   CHILD 

One  of   Bishop  Gibbons's  gifts  to  the  Con 

vent  of  Mercy,  at  Wilmington,   N.  C. 


are    numbered. 


delivered  in  it.  In  the  reception  room 
is  a  large  oil  painting  of  the  Madonna 
and  Child — another  of  his  loving  gifts. 
Entering  the  schoolroom,  the  visi- 
tor sees  the  little  desk  which  stood  on 
the  rostrum  in  the  old  days,  when  the 
children  who  had 
completed  their 
book  learning" 
received  their  cer- 
tificates from  the 
hands  of  Bishop 
Gibbons.  They 
have  gone  into 
many  parts  of  the 
country  to  take 
their  places  in  the 
real  world,  but  each 
can  say  that  he  has 
been  sent  on  his  life 
career  w  i  t  h  the 
advice  of  the  man 
who  is  now  the 
head  of  his  church 
in  America. 

Time  spares 
nothing.  For 
three-fourths  of  a 
century  has  St . 
Thomas's  been  the 
centre  of  the 
Roman  Catholic 
worshipin  Wilming- 
ton, but  its  days 
The  present  priest 
has  sold  the  church,  and  a  newer  and 
larger  one  is  to  take  its  place  on  a 
site  secured  elsewhere.  If  it  is  not 
torn  down  it  will  be  converted  into 
a  factory  or  warehouse,  and  what 
should  remain  a  cherished  i  histori- 
cal structure  will  be  debased  from  a 
temple  of  religion  into  a  nameless  pile 
of  brick  and  mortar.  Here,  indeed,  is 
an  opportunity  for  the  Catholics  of 
America  to  perpetuate  the  memory 
of  their  head,  by  uniting  to  secure  it 
and  dedicate  it  forever  as  a  monu- 
ment to  him.  The  day  might  well 
come  when  Protestant  and  Catholic 
alike  would  unite  in  paying  homage 
here  not  only  to  a  distinguished  priest 
and  prelate,  but  to  a  statesman  and 
true  patriot. 


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